


Sound

by cable69



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-07
Updated: 2016-01-07
Packaged: 2018-05-12 07:50:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,361
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5658433
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cable69/pseuds/cable69
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The world is not simply quiet. It is gone.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sound

**Author's Note:**

> "PROMPT: Spock, for some reason goes temporarily deaf. At first Kirk finds it troublesome but decides it's this would be a good time to get his feeling of his chest and confess to Spock. By the time he does it Spock got his hearing back and heard everything. OR Spock can read lips or something I don't fucking know."
> 
> originally posted on ff.net; unedited

The world is not simply quiet. It is gone.

Spock can feel his vocal cords vibrating. He can see the lights of the bombardment beyond the horizon. He reaches up to feel his ears and wetness covers his fingertips. He brings them to his face. They are green. Covered in green. Covered in blood.

He tries to yell, but even though he knows his throat and mouth are moving, he just can’t tell if any sound is coming out. He realizes that he is lying on the ground—why didn’t he realize this out earlier? He breathes out and the earth stirs. He cannot hear his breath. He cannot hear. He cannot hear.

He cannot see very well, either. Something in the back of his mind knows it is shock. He sees feet, feels the ground-pounding lurch as a rocket explodes nearby. There are feet in his vision, black boots with two-inch heels, and then hands under his arms, hauling him up, changing what he sees. A breath on his face and encouragement forwards. He reaches out, scrabbles his hand on the person’s back, and is rewarded when whoever it is wraps their arm around his shoulders, accounting for his unsteadiness. They are hurrying, jogging because Spock cannot go any faster. Spock tries to run but overbalances; the person slows him down. 

Spock’s neck feels cold on both sides; the blood has leaked all the way down to his collarbone. He feels nauseous. His world seems to be nothing but flashing lights and coldness. His body shivers. The arms wrap around him tighter.

His feet fall on stone, rather than sand, now. He is set against a wall. He watches as his rescuer moves in front of him. It is his captain—of course it is. Kirk flips open his communicator noiselessly. The captain is covered in dust and blood. His shirt is half-torn, exposing his pectorals, and there are small marks from shrapnel pattering his left side. One of his fingers looks broken. Spock tries to reach forwards, to help him in some way, but he overbalances. Kirk springs forwards, catching Spock, his hands on Spock’s chest and back, replacing him on his seat. The captain’s body heat is wonderful. Without thinking, Spock captures Kirk’s arm when Kirk tries to move away. They both pause, surprised. Kirk’s mouth moves, and Spock wishes he knew what Kirk was saying. Kirk sits close next to him, seeming to know what Spock needs, and flips the communicator open again. He speaks more, and Spock concentrates on his lips, but gets distracted by their shape. His head hurts. His head…

Pink flecks dance at the edge of his vision. The pain in his ears, dull at first, is increasing, until finally his whole head is full of a cold, insistent pressure. The pink has morphed to green, like his blood is rushing in on him, and white bursts in front of him, then black swallows him, and he feels the cool rock on his back, and Kirk’s warmth at his side, and then nothing more.

x

He wakes up to light.

The sound is still muted completely, but the colors are not. His vision is no longer blurry. Shapes are painfully clear, the colors bright and piercing. The round circle of the light above him is in sharp relief. He closes his eyes again, overwhelmed by his strongest sense.

There is a hand on his wrist. His eyes snap open. It is McCoy, whose mouth is moving. His eyes are locked across the room, but as he speaks, he turns his gaze to Spock. He smiles through his words. The crinkles around his eyes are soft.

Spock feels a hypospray and goes to sleep again.

x

When he next wakes up, he opens his eyes to total darkness. He panics, thinking he has lost his eyesight too, and tries to sit up. The lights come on just as the cords attached to his body yank him back onto the biobed. Someone is clutching his shoulders. Worried breath caresses his face. It is Kirk, looking anxious. He is speaking, but only to himself, it seems. He touches Spock’s cheek lightly and Spock holds back a shudder.

Kirk starts to move away, but Spock, acting once more out of instinct, holds his captain’s wrist, drawing Kirk down to him. He hugs him tightly, trying to make up for his loss of hearing with an increase of touch stimuli. His mind with Kirk’s voice, courtesy of his touch telepathy. He realizes immediately that Kirk does not know he is listening to his thoughts.

Surely he’ll be fine, Bones says modern medicine—all my fault he went out there—can do miracles, miracles out of the air, sound out of nothing, what is it like not to hear? what about my commands, my words, will he ever answer me again, will his voice continue when his ears stay dead, it took so long to wash that green blood off, and that rocket, landing so close, damned natives, damned regulations, damned Starfleet, I’ll stay off the damn bridge as long as I want, that’s my first officer down there, my Spock, you don’t even know him, admiral, you can’t tell me what to do, I refuse your orders and deny your charges, there will be no court martial here, anger spiking in Kirk’s mind, damned paperpushers with no idea what love means, that’s right damnit, it’s about time I faced the facts, I love that Vulcan, so there, just try to keep me away from sickbay, my love is down there and I won’t go away, I won’t leave his side, the one time I did look what happened, and all I ever want is for him to hear me say I love you—

Kirk’s thoughts are fast and unorganized, quite unlike Spock’s. Spock replies, the words pushing into Kirk’s head and wrapping around his synapses,

Captain, captain, calm yourself, people have recovered from this type of trauma-induced deafness before, do not worry yourself on my behalf, I am fine down here, and you should go back to the bridge, especially since the admiral Which admiral? told you to do your duty, and I am not your duty, I am not your responsibility—

Kirk seems unshaken by Spock’s eavesdropping, and replies hastily,

yes Spock you are my responsibility, you are my Crew, you are my life—

I am just one man, Captain, the needs of the many outweigh—

The needs of the one outweigh the needs of the many, how many times do I have to tell you that? listen to the sound of my mind, the texture of Kirk’s inner voice slides over Spock, can you feel how much I love you, how much the coils within my head are wrapped around you, how many thoughts of you run through me? god I’m so glad you can hear this, I didn’t expect you to—

I will always be able to hear you, Captain.

Kirk pulls away from the link, smiling. He leans down and kisses Spock’s cheek. Spock imagines the noise; the little watery sound of the picker and then the sharp smack of the kiss. 

McCoy comes in and gives both of them strange looks for seeming so happy. He picks up a PADD and types something on it, then shows it to Spock. The message reads,

My tests indicate you’ll have your hearing back in a week or two. Do you need anything?

Spock shakes his head, knowing that his expression is different but not caring. He’s not smiling, exactly, but he looks—less cold. McCoy raises his eyebrow in that way of his, looks at Kirk, and seems to understand. 

“I’ll just leave you two, then,” he says to Kirk on his way out the door. “If you try to fill me in on the details later, I’ll kill you, alright?”

Kirk laughs. “Sounds good, Bones.”

Spock has never been an accomplished lip-reader, so the only word he understands is sounds. He reaches for Kirk’s mind again, and Kirk gives it to him. Sounds good, Bones. Spock hears the echo of Kirk’s voice. Sounds good.


End file.
